&host=www.rt.com&uri=/news/us-defense-afghanistan-contractors/&via=1.1 204.160.105.135:80 (Footprint 4.8/FPMCP)&ua=Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Googlebot/2.1; +http://www.google.com/bot.html))
US official accused of secretly hunting insurgents
Published: 16 March, 2010, 03:41
Edited: 17 March, 2010, 11:32
A soldier with Army National Guard 162 Engineer Company attached with 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion of U.S. Marine Corps aims his rifle during a route clearance mission across a desert of Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, March 15, 2010 (AFP Photo)
(10.9Mb) embed videoTAGS: Conflict, Scandal, Middle East, Terrorism, Afghanistan
The US Defense Department has launched an investigation into the claims that a Pentagon official set up an illegal deal with private security contractors in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Michael D. Furlong is reported to have hired private contractors that were originally intended to be used to gain an understanding of Afghan tribal culture. Instead, however, the contractors – made up of former CIA and Special Forces personnel – were allegedly spying on suspected insurgents with the intent of later assassinating them. The arrangement is said to have been unofficial and is potentially in breach of a number of military regulations.
The covert operation purportedly involved not only former US special services personnel, but also journalists working in the region.
“It is not legal for a contractor to act in the capacity of an intelligence officer,” New York Times foreign correspondent Dexter Filkins, who broke the story, told RT. “There is also a very clear prohibition by the Pakistani government against American military personnel.”
Pakistani military analyst Tariq Birzada says that the incident only serves to further undermine the US campaign in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
“The purpose of gathering this intelligence was to pinpoint those people who are considered by the US as Islamic insurgents or terrorists who are the source of trouble for the US. This information was provided to the CIA and to the US military units, which used drones and other means to hit the targets in Pakistan,” claims Tariq Birzada.
“They are using those organizations that have been assassinating people in Iraq, that have been assassinating people elsewhere, and they are still operating in Afghanistan. So from Blackwater to the latest scandal disclosed by the New York Times, we have a situation in which US credibility in the region has been compromised,” Birzada stated.
“The US cannot claim any longer that the only purpose of the US is to put an end to the insurgency. Maybe the US has other objectives,” he added.
The US Defense Department is also investigating whether millions of dollars that were intended to be spent on collecting public information on developments in Afghanistan and Pakistan were siphoned off and used to organize lethal attacks.
The company running the program denies wrongdoing, but journalist Kevin Sites says it is no surprise if the project was abused.
“The details are quite complicated and the players involved are as colorful as the story itself. Michael Furlong, a former army officer, apparently was siphoning communication funds to fund his own private hit squad. That is what was being alleged at this point. But the actual funding of this was coming from an organization called Afpax, which was a partnership founded by Robert Young Pelton and former CNN news chief Easton Jordan,” Kevin Sites explains.
“They had gone to the military with the idea of providing them with certain information – basically that would be a website that provided open source information, photographs, details on the ground that the military could use. When you get in bed with the US military, almost anything can happen, and if you are supplying them with information, eventually that information is probably going to be used to kill people. That is the job of the US military,” he added.
15.03.2010, 23:42
3 comments
Rantala saga: daring escape of homesick 7-year-oldThe fate of Robert Rantala – a Finnish boy who has a Russian mother and Russian citizenship – still hangs in the balance, as the 7-year-old escapes from school to see long-missed parents. |
16.03.2010, 09:31
4 comments
Russian men tend towards Western womenRussian women are often considered some of the most beautiful in the world, yet it seems more and more men in the country are looking elsewhere for love, using dating agencies with international clients. |
"Instead, however, the contractors – made up of former CIA and Special Forces personnel – were allegedly spying on suspected insurgents with the intent of later assassinating them. " Where else but in Afghanistan and Iraq can these mutants play out their fantasies of hunting down and killing human beings? Afghanistan and Iraq is a blood soaked playpen for anyone (Christians and Muslims) who enjoys tormenting and killing fellow humans. The oscar winning American movie "Hurt Locker" depicts an individual living a life on the edge of danger as he disarms IED bombs in Iraq. He sacrifices everything he had in his normal life for a chance of excitement in Iraq. He keeps extending his assignments in Iraq rather than returning home to his wife and child. Sometimes when humans have had a taste of human blood, they become intoxicated with it. That is why wars must be avoided at all cost - something that President Bush did not consider when he launched his "shock and awe" attack on defenseless Iraq.
“The purpose of gathering this intelligence was to pinpoint those people who are considered by the US as Islamic insurgents or terrorists who are the source of trouble for the US." In other words, any Iraqi man woman or child who doesn't "love" the American occupation. If an Iraqi show disrespect to a passing American convoy, he or she runs the risk of being shot dead on the spot or being grabbed by the occupiers, a black hood being put over his/her head and thrown into the back of a truck - destination unknown. And, the Americans will crow to the world that they have captured another al Qaeda "terrorist". This is the reality in American occupied Iraq - and Afghanistan. America is violently trashing about in Afghanistan and Iraq because the Pentagon knows that they were sucked into a trap set by Al Qaeda. Once America sent ground troops into the huge area of Afghanistan and Iraq, the trap door closed behind them. America does not have enough troops to force the Afghans and Iraqis into accepting their occupation, thus they need private armies of mercenaries such as the Blackwater killers and individual "Rambos" to implement their plan to terrorize the Afghan and Iraqi people into submission. One consequence of America's brutal occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq is that Americans are being desensitized to the value of human life. Bush welcomed all the misfits, criminally insane, or delusional gunslingers to come and help him beat the occupied peoples into submission. But, there will be payback to America for spawning such evil in Afghanistan and Iraq. So go ahead Pentagon generals and your mercenary sidekicks, have your fun while you still have the time. America ceases to be a white nation in about 30 years and whites will no longer rule the land. Then, perhaps America will be less bloodthirsty than she is today.
Does anyone really think Mr. Furlong is doing something that the US government is unaware of and Obama does not know about. President Obama campaigned on the promise that he wanted to go after insurgents in Pakistan even if the Pakistani Government rejected the American presence. Any group of people in the name of religion that harm their own wives by mutilation in the name of God is evil. May God bless you Mr. Furlong. Keep up the good work.